“Remembrance of a righteous one brings blessing…”—Proverbs 10:7 “At a family therapy session, one family member said something totally uncalled for, provocative, and insulting to another person. The remark was extremely irritating to me, even as an observer, and I anticipated an explosive outburst of outrage from the recipient. To my great surprise, the latter remained quiet and merely gestured to indicate that he was dismissing the comment as being unworthy of a response. “After the session, I complimented the man on his self-restraint. He explained, ‘A friend of mine once had a very angry outburst. During his rage he suffered a stroke from which he never regained consciousness. “‘I am not afraid that if I become angry I would also suffer a stroke. However, what I and everyone else remember of my friend are the last words of his life, which were full of bitterness and hostility. That is not the way I wish to be remembered. Since no person can know exactly when ones time is up, I made up my mind never to act in such a manner, so that if what I was doing was to be my last action on earth, I would not be remembered that way.’ “The Talmud tells us that when Rabbi Eliezer told his disciples that a person should do teshuvah one day before his death, they asked, ‘How is a person to know when one will die?’ Rabbi Eliezer answered, ‘Precisely! Therefore one should do teshuvah every day, since tomorrow may be one’s last day.’ “The verse cited above may be explained in the same way. People should behave in a way that they would wish others to remember them, for that can indeed be a blessing.”—Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 14:53:30 +0000
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